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"Stop! Stop now!" Lockhart screamed louder and louder until Snape's crisp and clear voice rang out.

"Finite Incantatem"

Snape's voice stopped the general madness. The guys stopped their chaotic casting of spells. Tousled, shabby, distressed, or on the contrary, joyful - the students were in a very different state. Still, the appearance of the majority was far from befitting. Lockhart ran around, helping out due to his modest capabilities and trying to somehow eliminate the consequences of this chaos.

"Perhaps, it is better to start with a defense," a bright thought visited our teacher of DADA. "I invite two volunteers."

Hermione immediately took a step forward. Adventuress, believe in herself? But Lockhart didn't see her.

"Longbottom, Finch-Fletchley, would you like to try?"

"Bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape walked over. "Longbottom can do such a mess with the simplest spell that Finch-Fletchley's remains will have to be carried to the hospital wing in a matchbox.

"I would suggest Malfoy and Potter," Snape grinned. I looked at the indignant Hermione. The girl clearly decided something for herself, smiled, and went to Potter, deftly pushing him behind her back.

"You two are constantly in conflict," she explained to Potter with a smile, going up the podium.

"Miss Granger?" Snape did not see all this fuss, but sooner or later, he had to turn around. "It seems that you are still Granger, not Potter, and I'm sure that I summoned Potter.

"Is it important? After all, we are here to study ..." with a smile, Hermione shrugged her shoulders, and the hall giggled knowingly: "This is Granger. Studies ... Granger ... Books ... "

"As you please, Miss Granger," Snape muttered, displeased but did not interfere.

Draco was somehow confused by this situation, but he had already stepped onto the platform. He looked questioningly at Snape, at Lockhart, and at the others, mostly his own. It looks like the "Beat Potty" action was being prepared in advance. Hermione, it seems, decided to test herself. It's one thing to use your tricks and practice against a reliable teammate and another thing to use against an unpredictable opponent.

Snape nodded to Malfoy and walked over to him, talking quietly. Lockhart went up to Hermione and also tried to say something but dropped his wand. Hermione waited all this time in a kind of relaxed position, resting her left hand on her side and tapping her shoulder with a wand in her right hand. At the same time, she looked at Malfoy and somehow slyly smiled. I mentally rolled with laughter. Why? I don't know, but it seemed pretty funny to me. I had no doubts about Hermione's safety.

Finally, all preparations were over, Draco and Hermione parted to the sides. Malfoy, with a contemptuous face, saluted with his wand. Hermione did the same, but much more relaxed.

"Three ..." Lockhart began to count down, "Two ..."

"Everte Statum!" shouted Malfoy ahead of time, sending a thin ray of spell at Hermione. But as she stood in a relaxed position, tapping her wand on the shoulder and smiling, she continued to stand, only slightly shifted to the side. A ray flew past.

"Oh-oh," she smiled even wider. "Didn't your hearing start to deteriorate early?"

Malfoy's face turned red.

"Riktumsempra! Slugulus Eructo! Stupefy!" Malfoy began rather slowly, uncertainly, and angrily cast simple spells on Hermione, but she didn't even put up a shield, just slightly shifted from the line of the spell's flight.

"Serpensortia!" Malfoy shouted, but halfway through, Hermione seemed to have a clue of what was going to happen. We studied this spell. Quite complicated.

"Iktus!" Abruptly, but still with the same smile and almost without changing posture, just pointing her wand at Malfoy, Hermione created a spell that looks like an air fist. A jellyfish-like clot with great speed went to Malfoy. The snake had just fallen from the tip of his wand when it was carried away by Ictus, sending it back to its creator. Well, Malfoy himself was blown away. In-flight, with a convulsive, frightened movement of his hand, he threw away a snake that still did not understand anything, and it crashed onto the podium between Hermione and Malfoy.

"Oh my..." Hermione rebuked the retreating Draco, whose face clearly showed fear. "Spectacled cobra in a training duel? Our Draco learned a complex spell ..."

She spoke in a tone like she was talking to a little child. Snape's two eyebrows twitched, and that forced me to mentally roll with laughter even more. And at least Hermione was still relaxed and even to some extent haughtily tapped her wand on the shoulder. I think I let the genie out of the bottle. I wonder what will come of it?

While I was thinking about the strange twists and turns of life, the snake regained consciousness. She was frightened by the crowd and, of course, got into a threatening pose, striving to bite anyone who dared to approach it. Only now did the disciples understand the danger of the situation. Those who stood closer recoiled from the snake in horror.

"Stand still, Granger," Snape said gravely. "I will remove it now."

And he really would have removed, but Lockhart took the lead. He was already shining like a polished Galleon."

"No, excuse me, I'll do it! Alarte Ascendare!"

A ray of spell went into the snake with a whistle but only threw it up and embittered it more. Here Potter could not help but stand out, although both Snape and Hermione were already ready to destroy the snake. The guy hissed, distracting the snake from considering Finch-Fletchley for food. The snake reacted instantly to Potter's hiss and glanced at him.

While everyone was in total confusion, even Hermione suddenly began to consider Potter as a curious specimen, Snape moved away from the surprise.

"Vipera Evanesca."

A ray of the spell fell from the professor's wand and landed straight into the snake, which in convulsions began to quickly burn out like a wick, disappearing.

The students came to life, whispered, looked at Potter with surprise and condemnation. Ron grabbed his friend by the sleeve of his robe and dragged him out of the large hall, while the students only parted, letting the guy pass by.

"Shall we continue?" said Lockhart enthusiastically, but after looking around the still a little shocked and depressed students, even his bright head was able to get the thought that now there was no time for duels.

"I think that's enough for today," Snape summed up succinctly. On this, everyone began to disperse.

Hermione came down from the podium and walked over to me. Only now, I could see her slightly trembling fingers.

"Are you worried, or haven't you fought enough?"

"Both..." she answered, removing her wand. "We need to talk, urgently."

And I guess what.

Percy intercepted us literally at the exit from the Great Hall, and together we reached our class.

"I'll be back for you in an hour. Soon we will go to bed," the prefect indicated his position, adjusted the cap on his head, and left."

"So..." Hermione sat down at her desk and began to broadcast with an important look. "Today, we learned a few important things. Malfoy knows several spells, and Serpensortia is the best of them. In his opinion."

"Yes," I stared at the girl with feigned adoration. Along the way, I took a notebook and a pen out of my bag and started making short notes.

"Clown," smiled Hermione but immediately turned serious. "Potter Parselmouths."

"Okay."

"No, seriously."

"I understand that, "seriously." You don't think he's related to Slytherin, do you?"

"The probability of this is so small that ... I don't even know. Slytherin lived a thousand years ago."

"It doesn't matter. In England, only one genus was related to him - the Gaunts. This is a well-known fact and is indicated in some old history books."

"Yes, I remember something like that ..."

"As far as I know, the Potters have never crossed paths with the Gaunts. But there is no exact information, and they do not write about this. Even if there is a drop of Slytherin kinship in Potter, it is absurdly small."

Hermione's fingers were still twitching.

"No," she abruptly got up from the table, taking her wand in her hand. "We need to train more!"

We spent about thirty minutes in a non-stop duel and only then asked Timmy to bring some juice.

"Christmas is coming soon."

"Exactly!" I could hardly resist not hitting my forehead with my palm. "I have to leave for Christmas."

"Then I'll go too. Almost everyone will disperse, and it will be extremely unsafe for one to stay here."

"You're right."

Having spent the remaining time before lights out on homework, we did not notice how it was time to go into the living room - Percy came for us. And in the living room ... No one congratulated Hermione with an amazing duel - everybody was talking about Harry, about Parseltongue, about the likelihood that he is the heir. Well, a couple more people were looking at us when we took our place on the sofa in a dark corner.

The next day, I quickly made a request to return home for Christmas, and literally in the middle of the day, the whole of Hogwarts was seized by an even greater panic than before - Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick were attacked. For me, the time remaining before the holiday was spent in study and training, and for the rest - in fear and looking back. All tickets for the Hogwarts Express were bought up, distributed, and otherwise obtained into the frightened students' hands. An escape was being prepared.